Expert trainers from Oracle University share tips and tricks and answer questions that come up in a classroom.

Monday Jun 30, 2014

One of the most crucial parts of any recruitment campaign is the candidate interview, and like all meetings it usually involves the taking of notes and subsequent incorporation of that feedback into the system for relevant stakeholders to review.
The Taleo Evaluation Management feature not only makes this process seamless, it allows for the total management and administration of feedback questionnaires. It should be noted that although the context of this article is ‘Interview’ this is by no means that only reason for using this feature. Any feedback, for any purpose, that needs to be recorded in the system can utilise this service.

The Setup

After a minimal amount of back end configuration (including Feedback Expiration Period and Message Templates), the next step is to create series of questionnaires in a library that can be pushed to the relevant people (e.g. Interviewers and Assessors) at the appropriate time. This is a 3 stage process:

In addition, you need to update the User Type Permissions in order to establish which users are classified as Evaluators and can therefore be sent the questionnaire.

Linking to Requisitions

Once the setup is complete it is time to start using the feature. The first step in this journey is to ensure that the right Questionnaires and Evaluators are associated with the appropriate Requisitions. This is completed at the time of creating the requisition in the system.

The Feedback Request

So, the candidate finally reaches the relevant stage of the hiring process (e.g. Interview) that requires the gathering of feedback. It is now a simple case of sending the right questionnaire to the right evaluators…
...then just sit back, relax and wait for the results to come flooding in.

Nigel Wiltshire has over 18 years of experience in software and training with a specialization in the Taleo Enterprise Edition suite. He has been involved in training most industries from government bodies to large corporations and charitable organizations. Along with the end goal of thoroughly explaining the systems he is training on, Nigel also strives to bring a little bit of fun into the training environment by sprinkling in humour and commonly relatable stories from his experiences as a trainer.

Students often ask if GoldenGate supports trail encryption with the Oracle Wallet. Yes, it does now! GoldenGate supported encryption with keygen and the ENCKEYS file for years. GoldenGate 12c now also supports encryption using the Oracle Wallet. This improves security and simplifies its administration.

Two types of wallets can be configured in GoldenGate 12c:

The wallet that holds the master key, used with trail or TCP/IP encryption and decryption, stored in the new 12c dirwlt/cwallet.sso file.

The wallet that holds the User Id and Password, used for authentication, stored in the new 12c dircrd/cwallet.sso - credential store - file.

A wallet can be created using a ‘create wallet’ command. Once created, adding a master key to an existing wallet is easy using ‘open wallet’ and ‘add masterkey’ commands.

Existing GUI Wallet utilities such as the Oracle Database “Oracle Wallet Manager” do not work on this version of the wallet. The default Oracle Wallet location can be changed.

GGSCI (EDLVC3R27P0) 44> sh ls -ltr ./dirwlt/*

-rw-r----- 1 oracle oinstall 685 May 30 05:24 ./dirwlt/cwallet.sso

GGSCI (EDLVC3R27P0) 45> info masterkey

Masterkey Name: OGG_DEFAULT_MASTERKEY

Creation Date: Fri May 30 05:24:04 2014

Version: Creation Date: Status:

1 Fri May 30 05:24:04 2014 Current

The second wallet file stores the credential used to connect to a database, without exposing the UserId or Password in a parameter file or macro. Once configured, this file can be copied so that credentials are available to connect to the source or target database.

The encryption wallet file can also be copied to the target machine so the replicat has access to the master key when decrypting any encrypted records the trail. Similar to the ENCKEYS file, the master key wallet created on the source host must either be stored in a centrally available disk or copied to all GoldenGate target hosts. The wallet is in a platform-independent format, although it is not certified for the iSeries, z/OS, or NonStop platforms.

The new 12c UserIdAlias parameter is used to locate the credential in the wallet.

GGSCI (EDLVC3R27P0) 52> view param extwest

Extract extwest

Exttrail ./dirdat/ew

Useridalias gguamer

Table west.*;

The EncryptTrail parameter is used to encrypt the trail using the FIPS approved Advanced Encryption Standard and the encryption key in the wallet. EncryptTrail can be used with a primary extract or pump extract.

GGSCI (EDLVC3R27P0) 54> view param pwest

Extract pwest

Encrypttrail AES256

Rmthost easthost, mgrport 15001

Rmttrail ./dirdat/pe

Passthru

Table west.*;

Once the extracts are running, records can be encrypted using the wallet.

GGSCI (EDLVC3R27P0) 60> info extract *west

EXTRACT EXTWEST Last Started 2014-05-30 05:26 Status RUNNING

Checkpoint Lag 00:00:17 (updated 00:00:01 ago)

Process ID 24982

Log Read Checkpoint Oracle Integrated Redo Logs

2014-05-30 05:25:53

SCN 0.0 (0)

EXTRACT PWEST Last Started 2014-05-30 05:26 Status RUNNING

Checkpoint Lag 24:02:32 (updated 00:00:05 ago)

Process ID 24983

Log Read Checkpoint File ./dirdat/ew000004

2014-05-29 05:23:34.748949 RBA 1483

The ‘info masterkey’ command is used to confirm the wallet contains the key. The key is needed to decrypt the data read from the trail before the replicat applies changes to the target table.

GGSCI (EDLVC3R27P0) 41> open wallet

Opened wallet at location 'dirwlt'.

GGSCI (EDLVC3R27P0) 42> info masterkey

Masterkey Name: OGG_DEFAULT_MASTERKEY

Creation Date: Fri May 30 05:24:04 2014

Version: Creation Date: Status:

1 Fri May 30 05:24:04 2014 Current

Once the replicat is running, records can be decrypted using the wallet.

GGSCI (EDLVC3R27P0) 44> info reast

REPLICAT REAST Last Started 2014-05-30 05:28 Status RUNNING

INTEGRATED

Checkpoint Lag 00:00:00 (updated 00:00:02 ago)

Process ID 25057

Log Read Checkpoint File ./dirdat/pe000004

2014-05-30 05:28:16.000000 RBA 1546

There is no need for the DecryptTrail parameter when using the wallet, unlike when using the ENCKEYS file.

GGSCI (EDLVC3R27P0) 45> view params reast

Replicat reast

AssumeTargetDefs

Discardfile ./dirrpt/reast.dsc, purge

UserIdAlias ggueuro

Map west.*, target east.*;

Once a record is committed in the source table, the encryption can be verified using logdump and then querying the target table.

The replicat automatically decrypts this record from the trail using the wallet and then inserts the row to the target table. This select verifies the row was committed in the target table and the data is not encrypted.

TARGET_EURO_SQL>select * from branch where branch_number=50;

BRANCH_NUMBER BRANCH_ZIP

------------- ----------

50 80071

Book a seat in an upcoming Oracle GoldenGate 12c: Fundamentals for Oracle Ed 1 class to learn much more about using GoldenGate 12c new features with the Oracle wallet, credentials, integrated extracts, integrated replicats, coordinated replicats, the Oracle Universal Installer, a multi-tenant database, and other features.

Explore Oracle University GoldenGate classes here, or send me an email at randy.richeson[at]oracle.com if you have other questions.

About the Author:

Randy Richeson joined Oracle University as a Senior Principal Instructor in March 2005. He is an Oracle Certified Professional (10g-12c) and GoldenGate Certified Implementation Specialist (10-11g). He has taught GoldenGate since 2010 and other technical curriculums including GoldenGate Management Pack, GoldenGate Director, GoldenGate Veridata, Oracle Database, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and the Oracle Application Server since 1997.